


Book One: Transmutation

by NoSongSoSweet



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Dark, Do not repost, Equalists (Avatar), F/F, F/M, Female Character of Color, I really do not know how to tag, Male-Female Friendship, POV Multiple, Republic City, Sorry Not Sorry, book 1 rewrite, how does one tag?, social unrest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26078182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoSongSoSweet/pseuds/NoSongSoSweet
Summary: Earth. Fire. Air. Water. The cycle of the Avatar has begun anew, and with the changing of the seasons, so too come new allies and foes.Avatar Korra has begun her training to master airbending, a spiritual art that frustrates her at every turn. Yet, when she arrives to the gleaming metropolis of Republic City, she finds that there is a dark under-current to the shine of the city, a revolution led by the mysterious Amon that threatens to boil over with devastating consequences if she does not find a way to stop them.Or more simply put, a Book One rewrite, focused more on the social unrest of the Equalists, Korra's own struggles, and the attempt to follow in the footsteps of a beloved Avatar, whom many have still not forgotten.Written with the beloved help of my friend Namita, who I adore with all my heart.
Relationships: Korra/Asami Sato
Kudos: 13





	1. No good deed goes unpunished

**Author's Note:**

> This work began out of a mutual frustration I shared with my friend on the endless potential of Legend of Korra, something we both felt was not adequately explored in the show! No trigger warnings for this chapter, but mild discussion of burns, and hints at the Hundred Year War and its atrocities. 
> 
> Of course, this is our idea for a rewrite, and not everyone will agree. If you have comments, critiques, or concerns, please feel free to leave a comment. Other than that, please enjoy!

There was someone in his midst. 

He cracked open an eye. It was not as if his surroundings were a pleasure to gaze upon. 

The Land of the Spirits rotted. His eyes swung back and forth between the brown, decrepit trunks and dead flora that adorned his cave. What used to be verdant green, lush and full of life, lay dying at his very feet and there was nothing to be done. 

Despite this imbalance in surroundings, something… else disturbed him from his slumber. It had been 50 years since someone had deliberately walked into his presence. He still remembered the young face of his past nemesis, and the veneer that he hid behind. It had always been the trick of the Avatar: a thousand years of bloodlust trapped behind an innocent smile. 

A shadow appeared near the entrance to his cave. He opened another eye and shifted himself, slithering across the walls, the vines barely rustling at his presence. 

“Hello? Is anybody there?” 

He paused for a moment. A boy. No, not a boy. A man. He spoke in the dialect of the Water Tribes, a language he had last heard when he stole the face of the Avatar’s lover. 

He smiled at that memory, but his lips curled downwards when the man continued speaking. 

“Help me please! Please! I-I can’t…” 

The man’s voice was cut off by his sharp gasp, as if he had been struck. His interest was certainly piqued. If this man proved to have an interesting tale, perhaps he would allow him the grace of a last few words before taking his face too. 

The man finally pushed through the plants covering the entrance, holding his face and barely restraining his whimpers of pain. He looked around, taking in the small cave, noting perhaps the dreary atmosphere and the rotting leaves that were not at all like the world he left behind. 

“Why hello.” 

The man jumped, his face buried in his hands again. “I - What great spirit am I speaking to?”

He chuckled. “What pleasant manners. Most tend to run, or perhaps scream, which often grates on the nerves. But you were raised better under Tui and La’s guidance, weren’t you?”

The man kept his face hidden and he slithered out completely from the shadows, twisting himself so that he was directly in front of the man. Through the brown fingers, he could see the curling edges of red, and he couldn’t help another smile. 

“I presume the burns on your face serve another purpose other than excruciating agony.”

The man’s fingers trembled against his face. 

“Your perception is great, ancient spirit. I did not think a benefit to these scars would be protecting myself from you, Koh, the Face-Stealer.” 

Koh’s smile grew wider at that. “Did the Avatar regale the world of tales after his encounter with me? You should be grateful, little waterbender. Your precious spirits were saved because of me.” 

The man stiffened. 

“I am no bender,” He hissed, and Koh swooped closer to the man, so close that the man could feel Koh’s porcelain face just centimeters from his own, but the man did not flinch, nor did he remove his fingers. Koh felt the slightest tinge of disappointment, but also curiosity. 

“Of course not. The fire would not have scorched you so if you were.”

The man shook, from fear or anger, Koh knew not, but he relished it all the same. He pulled back, observing the man with a more calm objectivity. 

“Why have you come to my lair then? What secrets will you give me if not your face?” 

“I…” The man stumbled on his words, but his voice grew stronger as he spoke. 

“I needed help.”

“Help? You have walked into a dragon’s den for help?”

“I- Not help. Justice.” The word hung heavy in the air, tasting of iron and ash. “I seek justice.” 

Koh chuckled lowly at this. “Careful. Do you seek justice or revenge? It is true, both soak your enemies in blood, and create widows and orphans, but do you truly know the difference?”

“It is justice. I am sure of it.” 

Koh thought of the scenes he had seen in flashes from the mortal world. The screams of children, the chains wrapped around the wrists of prisoners, the scars carried by mothers and fathers, the imbalance of a world not yet rectified because of the Avatar’s negligence. It extended to even the depths of his own home, tangling itself in the vines and leaves, and choking all life out of them. 

The Avatar. Reincarnated. It would only be a matter of time before the cycle began anew. 

“I have a solution for you.” The man’s face tilted upwards ever so slightly at that. 

“It shall not heal your burns, or scars. You must bear those for the world to see.” 

Koh slithered in even closer, let his own breath wash over the man’s face, and observed for any minute fear or perhaps even for the man to pull away. He did not do such a thing. 

“I will grant you the power to exact…” Koh smiled, though the man could not see. “Justice.” 

“I would take anything you give me!” The man said, and Koh chuckled once more. 

“Give me a name, mortal, so I might teach you the ways of the most ancient spirits.” 

Koh waited, watching as the man prepared to speak. “I am Noa-”

The man suddenly cut himself off and that same disappointment crossed Koh’s face once more. He was not so stupid then, to provide a spirit with his name in a world where names are power. 

The man took a deep breath and lowered his fingers, exposing his scorched face and angry, red skin, the scars criss-crossing his face in an ugly fashion. His eyes contrasted it all as chips of ice. 

“I am Amon.”


	2. Interlude Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was meant to be about Republic City beginnings, but our minds went somewhere else and this was the product. I also wanted to name the chapter after a lyric from Hamilton, but alas, it's late and I do not have the creativity for that right now. Please enjoy! :)

In hindsight perhaps it should have been obvious that the next Avatar would be born in the Southern Water Tribe. A civilization that crawled its way back to life was apt for the next incarnation of the Avatar. 

But here in a land of perpetual darkness, where each of his breaths twirled into white-silver smoke and rose into a vast expanse of starlight, it was hard to appreciate all of it, considering how Ji-hun couldn’t feel his fingers. 

This child would mark the 90th child that the White Lotus had deemed compelling enough to examine closer. Each time Ji-hun had been sent out on these missions, he had come back all the more frustrated. 

It had been four years since Avatar Aang’s death - and the world needed to know. 

“This is it,” Akira said, his voice hoarse and low, and he threw his hand at a large tent, lit in an amber glow from the fire inside. As they trudged inside, hugging their pitiful furs around them tighter as the gales blew snow around them, Ji-hun’s eyes narrowed. 

Next to the tent lay a pile of rocks - small and pitiful, but they were arranged symmetrically, as if by a whimsical child. Though, Ji-hun noted, however small the rocks were, they could not be taken in hand by this child of four. 

“Welcome!” Chief Tonraq exclaimed, and Ji-hun tore his gaze from the rocks to the Southern Water Tribe chief. Tonraq’s face was warm and open, laugh lines etched into his face as if he were a decade older, yet his strong stature gave away the truth of a powerful waterbender. 

At least this couple was a pair of benders, rather than not at all, Ji-hun thought. The last pair they had seen were non-benders with no trace of bending ancestry, and even then they had tried to pass their son off as the new Avatar. 

“Chief Tonraq, we thank you for your hospitality,” Akira said after Chief Tonraq’s wife Senna ushered them inside, and pressed warm drinks into their hands. “We’ve had a very long journey, and a far longer search.”

Ji-hun took a sip, inhaling the fumes of some spice, no doubt a courtesy of the Fire Nation’s close relations with the South, or perhaps even his own home in the Earth Kingdom. 

“Well,” Senna smiled brightly at Ji-hun, before looking at Akira. “I am pleased to tell you that your search has come to an end.” 

“Forgive me, madam,” Ji-hun spoke placatingly, hoping that his wariness had not seeped into his tone. “I hope that you will not give us the words of an astrologer, speaking to how the constellation Bul-ui jimseung was above when your daughter was born.” 

Senna’s gaze didn’t budge. “In the Water Tribes, we know it as Innak. But yes it was. I believe it is known as the dragon in the Fire Nation.” 

“They call it Ryuu,” Akira offered with a look of concealed disdain. “Master Katara spoke highly of your daughter, of a talent that the South had not seen for centuries.” 

“Master Katara is right,” Tonraq said firmly, ignoring the non-sequitur, before glancing behind him and calling out. 

“Korra! Come here.” 

He watched as the girl walked into the room, oozing a confidence that Ji-hun had not seen so prominently displayed in a child before. Akira watched impassively as the girl went into the customary bows with impatience, before tugging at her father’s hand. 

“Are these the Lotus people?” Korra asked, her voice tiny, but bright. 

“The members of the White Lotus, honey,” Senna corrected. 

Akira drew water out of his pouch and Korra’s eyes brightened immediately, her hands immediately flying up to touch the water swirling in Akira’s hand. But her mother pushed her hands down, an implicit gesture to stay patient. 

“Bend this for me,” Akira commanded, as if he were speaking to an upstart student, rather than a child. 

Korra’s hands began moving, her arms twisting into a complex move that made Ji-hun’s eyebrows raise. Akira’s mastery over water seemed rigid compared to this child’s bending, as Ji-hun watched the water push and pull around Korra’s hand. 

Korra grinned as if she were putting on a show, and moved her body in harmony with the water, twirling it into twin spirals around her. Each one of her movements carried the grace of a thousand years of skill. But just as quickly as she had been enthralled with the water, the child tired of it, and in a sharp move, the water shot out towards the open fire just steps away. 

“Korra!” Senna admonished, rushing over to the fire to salvage the last sparks remaining. 

Korra only beamed brighter, her smile only dimming when Chief Tonraq glanced at her sternly, though his gaze gave away his pride. 

“Well,” Akira coughed, breaking the moment of silence that had stretched for too long. Ji-hun finally remembered the rocks outside the tent and wondered perhaps if this child had moved those too. “Your daughter is certainly gifted.” 

Chief Tonraq opened his mouth to respond, but his daughter’s high voice spoke first. 

“Of course I’m good!” Korra’s eyes narrowed as if she were upset. “I’m the Avatar! And you have to deal with it!” 

Ji-hun’s brow furrowed at that, and he tried not to smile. 

“Perhaps,” He offered, and Korra glared at him. It would have been intimidating if not for her pout and how tiny she was compared to him. 

“We must observe her further,” Akira stated, and Senna frowned. 

“That was not enough? Master Katara said that there was not a bender in history who could bend so well when they were our daughter’s age!” Chief Tonraq exclaimed. 

“Yes, but we cannot simply accept that your daughter is the Avatar with a mere demonstration of prodigious talent. If I might remind you that Lord Zuko’s very own sister showed such capabilities with fire - ” 

“I do not think any of us need reminders of her strength,” Chief Tonraq said darkly. Akira bent his head in acquiescence. 

“Let us take your daughter to the White Lotus compound in the South,” Ji-hun suggested. 

“She must be tested further in her capabilities by masters of the four elements. And, if she is the Avatar, she must be protected.” 

Senna and Chief Tonraq exchanged a look, and the latter sighed. 

“We must discuss it further,” Chief Tonraq insisted. “She is a child.” 

Akira and Ji-hun looked at each other too, before Ji-hun glanced at Korra, who was visibly pouting, half-torn between petulance and worry. 

“If that is what you insist upon, Chief Tonraq, then we will not fight you.” Akira said calmly, and Ji-hun hid his frown.

Of course Akira would agree now, because he knew that Tonraq too would agree to the White Lotus’ protection. Who would dare fight Avatar Aang’s orders after all?

Senna insisted that they take another drink for the night, and stay in the village too, but Akira kindly declined. Ji-hun followed him out of the tent after saying his own goodbyes and grudgingly walked back into the bitter cold of the South’s nights. 

Ji-hun looked upwards, and watched as the diffuse pale silver of the moon painted the constellation above them in a hazy white and grey. He recognized it, of course. 

The constellation known as Ryuu, Innak, and Bul-ui jimseung. The dragon. He had read the legends of course. For every Avatar previous, it had gleamed on the fateful nights when they were recognized by all the world. And, in living memory, it had yet to fail, and it always remained true.


End file.
